Weather

The flood damage to Iowa crops could reach $3 billion, according to the state's agriculture secretary. "Right now, we have about 10 percent of our corn that has either been flooded out or not planted and about 20 percent of our (soy)beans," Bill Northey told a public television show. Amid the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some towns in northeastern Missouri and Illinois got an unwelcome surprise Saturday as river levels rose higher than projected. Forecasters said Saturday afternoon that the river would crest several inches higher than expected in Hannibal and at Quincy, Ill., where it was set to crest late in the day more than 2 feet below the '93 flood peak,

• .JJ Commentary: The Midwest has had two “hundred-year floods” in just 15 years.

A typhoon, which has submerged entire communities and set off landslides, has left at least 155 dead in the Philippines, said Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the national Red Cross, based on field reports from his staff. But there were concerns the death toll would jump dramatically. The 72 people listed as missing does not include the more than 740 passengers and crew aboard the MV Princess of Stars, a passenger ferry that capsized during Typhoon Fengshen.